zwiefz

I was on the Star Tribune's page today and for whatever reason clicked on the box to see the Twins Leaders. Apparently their statheads don't believe in having a minimum number of appearances to make lists like these. Guess who is listed as the highest BA???? Pelfrey at .667 And to balance that out guess who has the lowest ERA???? Robinson with 0.00 I don't care who you are, that's funny

I just saw that the Royals gave Johan Pino a major league contract. That doesn't mean that he will definitely make the team, but after they signed Morales recently I have to wonder what they are seeing/doing. Are the baseball gods just reminding me that all teams, not just the Twins make moves that make you shake your head? Are the Royals secretly baseball geniuses who will turn those two into All-Stars? Maybe they have been trying to copy the Twins blueprint for years going from a joke(the mid 90's) to the point of being the lovable underdogs who had sucess doing the little things right despite the odds/payroll(the mid '00's), and they have now moved onto the let your key players leave and sign washed up vets phase(the last few seasons).

I'm not saying that moving Escobar isn't an option, no one on any team should ever be untouchable. I just don't like all these guys running around sending out tweets, etc like this. Just because the two teams have matching surplus'/needs doesn't mean deals are imminent or even have been discussed.

"The second is that if the Twins are willing to move Escobar, that likely means they wouldn't move Plouffe as I'd assume the team would want Escobar to replace him at least short term. " I think you may have misunderstood that tweet. MLB traderumors has a much more detailed post on Gee in general and it seems that it was originally believed that the Mets were looking for a shortstop in exchange. Since the Twins are looking for pitchers it originally looked like it might be a match. I don't see anywhere saying the Twins actually offered Escobar for Gee, just that the Mets aren't interested in Escobar as an option to even discuss.

Still stewing on the position player thing. Anyone think they would still go after Rasmus to play center? Hunter in right, Rasmus in center, Arcia in left, Schafer as the bench OF, and Hicks in AAA. I could live with that(since we're already stuck with Hunter)

In his most recent column LEN3 mentioned at the very end interest in a position player with power. Any thoughts on who that might be, or even what position?

1)I agree completely. Arcia is always going to be a liability in the outfield and with Vargas/Sano in the future there is only so much room for so many all bat, little glove players. Arcia could actually net something in trade due to his age/power potential. I just hope if you are right that he doesn't turn into this decades Big Papi. 2)Have the Twins said for sure Arcia will be moved instead of Hunter? I've seen that come from a columnist/beat writer but who knows what Ryan/Molitor have in mind. For all the talk about Molitor being more metrically based its hard to believe he would be oblivious to how bad both of them in the outfield together would be. 3)Would people please stop comparing Hunter to Kubel, Bartlett, and Guerrier. Hunter was healthy and offensively productive last year(and several years prior) as compared to the huge unknown/gamble those three posed last year coming off horrible years(Kubel) or basically being out of baseball with injury(Bartlett, Guerrier) 4)I am all for bringing back guys like Eddie, Molitor, and Torii who can bring the 'Twins Way' back. That used to be a source of pride, of doing all the little things right, of maximizing talent. If this new, talented generation could be taught those things they could be amazing. Just because the 'Twins Way' has turned into a joke in recent years doesn't mean it can't come back to life.

Stringer- let me rephrase my first post, you're right: potential is too strong a word. How about this: hicks looked better in September than earlier in the season( which wasn't hard considering how low the bar was)

I agree that the Twins need to find an outfielder on a stop gap contract(1-2 years) until Buxton(hopefully) arrives. But I disagree with the idea that they need to focus on someone for left field especially. It is assumed that center will be manned by a Hicks/Shafer platoon. But if you can get a guy through free agency or trade who has a bat and a glove(say Rasmus) why couldn't they play center with the Hicks/Shafer platoon shifting to left. They would provide the same offense regardless of where they play, would be above average defensively for left fielders, would provide the center fielder the ability to cheat towards right to help Arcia, and lets be honest-if Hicks has a future with the team(and that is a HUGE if) it is going to be in a corner spot when Buxton comes up. Might as well get him adjusted to it now. So my answer is that I want the Twins to find the best outfielder they can, regardless of whether they have played center or a corner spot in the past. Hicks and Shafer showed potential at the end of the season, but not enough to say that they are entrenched in center field for the next season or two.

When discussing the starting pitching, where it is right now, and where it is going don't forget about Nolasco. With his contract he isn't going anywhere any time soon. I hope that his poor results this season so far really were due to his arm issues and that he will end up being the guy the Twins paid for. A rotation including some combination of the Nolasco(the pre-2014 version), Hughes, Gibson, Meyer, May, and Milone with guys like Pelfrey, Berrios, Darnell, Johnson, Pino around as depth may not compete with the A's or Tigers, but would still be a pretty darn good group.

I actually think resigning Suzuki is partially intended to help Pinto's catching career. With free agency ahead for Suzuki the Twins HAD to send Pinto to the minors because he HAD to learn to catch adequately by next year. But from all reports him being ready to work with a bunch of young, promosing pitchers by next year wasn't going to happen. Now that Suzuki is around, Pinto can be called back up and we can go back to the way it was at the beginning of the season-with Pinto as a part time DH/part time catcher who can learn from Steinbach and Suzuki on the job in the majors. Pinto gets to learn to walk the tightrope with Suzuki as his safety net.

Some of you guys are quick. Question #1 got answered before I even finished typing it

Great trade. Two questions: 1)What is Millone's contract status? This is his third full year in majors so I'm assuming he's still under team control for a little while. 2)If the Twins were to trade Willingham, what does your outfield look like now? I haven't paid any attention to AAA lately, but is anyone there ready to be added to the roster? Assuming Santana stays as starter in CF, who is your backup now? If the dominoes start falling would Hicks get promoted to AAA and Buxton to AA?

Jorge Polanco has made the jump from A to MLB twice already for limited playing time. With only a handful of games at AA, Jeremy thinks that he will be back with the Twins when New Britain's season ends. So my question is: does anyone think they would do the same thing with Buxton when Ft. Myer's season ends? Pro's-gets the fans excited down the stretch of a wasted season, gets him some exposure(similar to why they brought him in to the big league camp in spring training), lets him make up some of the at bats he has lost. Con's-not on 40 man roster(but there may be plenty of spots by the time the trade deadline passes), start his big league service clock, fans may riot if he is sent back to the minors to start 2015 I really don't think the Twins would do it, just a thought I had.

Since the Yankees cut Nunez to keep Solarte, and then traded Solarte for Headley, maybe we should offer them Nunez back for Headley. I love watching the baseball world turn

Just saw Chase Headley traded to Yankees. Offensive numbers(and money owed for rest of season)are very similar to Willingham but Headley is much younger and a much better defender. Padres got a utility guy(Solarte) and a A+ pitcher(DePaula) who projects as a relief pitcher. With age and defensive differences I'm guessing the Twins are looking for a little less than that in return for Willingham-so not much at all. Still think they should pull the trigger on a deal though.

I find the title of this thread amusing-"Ryan Admits Twins Are in Sell Mode". Where exactly in his quote does he says the words "sell mode"? He says two things: 1)The Twins have been "in a tough spot for four years" and 2)that they have "to listen". This exactly what every GM says every year at trade time. No one is untouchable, we always listen, etc, etc. And then when nothing happens(or very little) they say they had conversations but that nothing made sense. A couple of thoughts from reading other comments. I agree that we as fans would like to see good baseball for the rest of the year and beyond. But having Willingham batting third/clean up to me isn't good baseball. If guys like Suzuki and Morales are part of the long term plan, fine-sign them to extensions. If not turn the reins over to Pinto, Arcia, Parmalee, and even Colabello. I'd even rather see Nunez in left everyday than Willingham at this point. Find out if any of these guys are part of the solution or just AAAA players. The worst that happens is another top draft pick. The plan was never to contend this year, it was to build a base for future years. Correia and Willingham definitely aren't part of that. Suzuki and Morales, probably not. Perkins and Dozier-hopefully. But again, Ryan didn't say the team was going to be sellers-he said they'd listen to offers.

Article on ESPN.com says Matt Kemp would like to be traded in order to be an everyday center fielder. With Buxton's progression slowed down quite a bit because of the injury should the Twins have any interest at all? I think the biggest issue with this is the length/amount of money left on Kemp's contract. How much would the Dodgers have to be willing to pay for it to make sense? And what kind of prospects/players would you be willing to give up? I haven't heard a direct connection between the Twins and Kemp, but figured I'd start a discussion anyway. For the right price in money and prospects it might be a good fit to see if he can return to his previous form for a season or two until Buxton is ready and then Kemp could slide back to a corner spot.

I don't think that most of the complaining was necessarily about Fuld as a player in direct comparison to Masto and Presley. Most of the complaining was about the timing of the moves related to all of these guys that often left the team without a legitimate backup(or starting for that matter) center fielder. No one cares that they dropped Presley. It was that they dropped him for Bartlett. Then they had to drop Mastro in order to claim Fuld because Bartlett's retirement papers weren't done. Plus they wasted time with the Kenny Wilson experiment. Add this to the flaming out of Hicks the past two years after trading both Span and Revere and we end up with Santana and Parmalee playing CF. Two years ago CF was one of the absolute strength's/deep spots in the Twins organization. Suddenly the cupboard is bare until Buxton makes it(who is not exactly lighting up Ft Meyers, understandably so, right now). So in summary, the complaints are not about Fuld himself. He has been exactly as advertised-a fourth outfielder who is functional as an injury fill in(or in this case a failure fill in). The complaints are about the total mismanagement of a critical position to any baseball team that prides itself(or claims to) on defense and pitch to contact.

On the same day that Nolasco has to get an MRI? Is this the baseball god's way of reminding Twins fans who are about to jump off a cliff that things could always be worse?

Dang it. It appears it was a dumb beverage night. Was really hoping we had a genius beverage night Anyway, thought it might be a fun topic to talk about for a few hours

I definitely don't think that weakness creates better results. I just wonder if the adjustment to stronger legs is harder than we thought it was going to be. But I also agree with thoughts about the lingering effects of the concussion. A lot of the swings he taken and pitches he has swung at just don't seem like swings he would have taken in previous years.

One more Vavra kid coming up yet. I believe he is a senior in high school this year(or was).Joe is from my hometown and before getting hired by the Twins my wife worked for him while she was in college at a family fun center type place where he gave batting lessons. We actually bought our dog from him. Not sure if any of his sons will end up in the Majors, but they seem to at least have enough talent to justify their draft spots. Sometimes people gripe about the Twins being too loyal, but in this case it seems that loyalty and talent have merged themselves nicely.

Was watching the game last night(and admittedly consuming some beverages). Someone suggested a reason for Mauer's struggles this year. I thought it was crazy, but the more I thought about is(as the beverages have been known to cause) the more it made a little bit of sense. In the daylight I still think it's makes a little sense and thought I'd see what other people thought of it. The bottom line is this: Mauer's legs are too fresh. I'm not saying this is the entire problem, but am wondering if it may be a part of it. In the offseason everyone assumed that his numbers would go up without the fatigue/wear and tear caused by catching. But could the opposite be true as well? After all Mauer has spent his entire career hitting and catching. Maybe he got used to hitting with fatigued legs. With the lower body being such a key part of hitting and batting mechanics being so finicky it makes some sense that anything that alters those mechanics would have a trickle down effect. It's like the nagging injury in reverse. I couldn't help but think of an article I read a long time ago(I think it was about Nick Blackburn) where it talked about how early in games his sinker(I think,again I blame the beverages) didn't have as much movement on it because he was too fresh, had too much velocity and the pitch straightened out. But as the game went on and he got tired, his velocity dropped and movement increased. So if he could 'pitch better'(although with Blackburn that was/is a relative term) when slightly fatigued, in theory couldn't Mauer hit better when he was slightly fatigued? At the very least I think there is some truth in my buddy's statement that Mauer is going to have to adjust his swing/approach to having a stronger lower body and he just maybe hasn't made all those adjustments yet. Thoughts? Is this one of those dumb beverage nights or a genius beverage night?

Even players we perceive as having little or no value can end up helping. At the time Liriano had 'no value' and now we have Escobar. At the time Morneau had 'no value', and to Pittsburg he was of no value-but we end up with Kris Johnson out of the deal. Ryan Doumit had 'no value' but we got Gilmartin out of it. And last but not least(or is it first in this type of discussion) is the great Drew Butera. His trade for Michael Sulburan was nothing more than an afterthought, but half a season later it brought us Eduardo Nunez who is proving to be a pretty valuable guy. So my point is-in this quest to get the Twins back to being a legitimate post season threat no deal should be left unexplored. I want the Twins to get back to being great and when they get there I want them to stay there. That requires both short and long term vision. The deals I mentioned above show that there has been at least a little of both since TR has been back in charge. And that is why I am optimistic about this season and beyond.